Teaching assistants — called “TA”s — do much of the actual teaching at many universities and colleges. Philip Johnson, himself a new TA, explains how this sometimes works:
Carbon makes how many bonds?
Prior to accepting the offer here at the University of Toronto, it was agreed that my background would preclude me from TAing a number of courses, particularly those with the words ?organic? and ?inorganic? in them. Not that I couldn?t learn these subjects, the physicist in me likes to tell myself, simply that they are different enough from my formal training that I can?t pick them up without a reasonable amount of time and effort.
TAships were handed out a couple of weeks ago. As it happens, I was given the computational laboratory section of Intro Organic Chemistry I. An organic chemist friend of mine cheekily asked, ?So, how many bonds does Carbon form?? Yes, I do know the answer. No, I am definitely not who you want teaching students about organic chemistry.
Luckily for everyone (though mostly the undergrads in Intro Organic Chemistry I!), I?ve since been switched to a physical chemistry course. The first disaster of PhD-life averted.